Russian SAS targeted Margaret Thatcher

The former British Prime Minister was the target of an assassination plot during the Cold War.

Soviet special forces were tasked with targeting Thatcher should hostilities ever break out between Britain and the Soviet Union. Details were revealed in a recently released National Archives document which described how the government had been tipped off to the plan by a Russian defector who had been smuggled in to Britain by MI6.

"Margaret Thatcher was the target of a Russian ­assassination plot at the height of the Cold War, secret documents have revealed."

they should of killed the old bag before any war.the uk would be a far better place for it. Nah never happen, we have the SAS... who set the standard and even train other countries special forces Bring em on is what I bet she said at the time... if she knew or even cared

Any assasination would have been carried out by GRU spetsnaz group, and only if assasination was by assault and not by using some traitor etc. This seperate from what people usually associate with spetsnaz, being normally Group A (Alpha) and B (Vympel), who were present Dubrovka Street theatre seige, Beslan etc. Spetsnaz just means special and has no bearing on type of force, size, expertise or anything. To carry out operations like SAS at Iran embassy, then probably an adhoc unit made from the best of Alpha, Vympel and others would be used. Beslan was Alpha and Vympel, and their casualties we... [More]

If two countries go to war isn't the targeting of their leaders assumed...? Nope. Killing the leaders is called 'decapitation' and it's disfavored because A, the people doing the disfavoring are the leaders and B, if you win the war, there's nobody left with the authority to tell the other side's forces to stop fighting.